The two companies licensed to sell measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in the United States have now put a timeline on the executive order directing that the shot be split into three. Merck said obtaining FDA approval for single disease vaccines and then manufacturing and commercializing them could take years, "potentially as many as 10," even under current expedited review pathways.
That statement, and a parallel one from GSK, changes what the order practically means for households. It is no longer a question of whether parents will be offered a choice at their next pediatric visit. It is a question of whether the products the order describes will exist during the childhood of any infant born this year.
